Annual Report 2020 - 2021
2021 DĂa de los Muertos Event
ReflectSpace exhibition of HER RELIC from She Loves Collective
Dear Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Supporter,
Founded in 1907, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture (GLAC) includes six neighborhood libraries; the Brand Library & Art Center, a regional visual arts and music library and performance venue housed in the historic 1904 mansion of Glendale pioneer Leslie Brand; and the Central Library, a 93,000 square foot center of community where individuals for years have convened, collaborated, and created.
This said, throughout much of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, GLAC locations were largely unavailable to the community. Team GLAC dedicated itself to revamping its services to fill community needs, providing contactless pickup, mail service, virtual programs for all ages, and more. By increasing its student library cardholders, offering pickup craft kits, online reading challenges, online homework help, and virtual programs, GLAC was able to continue services to children and teens. Our nonprofit support organizations provided generous funding that helped GLAC pivot. The Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust helped mail a library card to every household in Glendale, and the Brand Associates supported online dance performances and workshops. GLAC facilitated the manufacture of PPE and introduced a new vendor to libraries. As liaison to the Arts & Culture Commission, we provided artists with opportunities to thrive and create during a challenging time.
“The Library’s open! I’ve missed it so much. It’s my second home!”
The community response to GLAC Pandemic services has been positive. GLAC sends customer satisfaction surveys to patrons who recently used the library. The survey includes a Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures how likely customers are to recommend GLAC to others. GLAC’s current NPS is 82.1. Across all industries, an NPS higher than 50 is considered excellent and scores higher than 80 are considered world-class. On April 19, 2021, Glendale Library, Arts & Culture reopened for public access for the first time in over a year. The community is thrilled to be back in the libraries – a long-time regular told staff, “The Library’s open! I’ve missed it so much. It’s my second home!”
Thank you for your support through an unprecedented year.
Warmest regards,
Gary Shaffer, Ph.D. Director of Glendale Library, Arts & Culture
We Rise² meet our community’s challenges.
The GLAC strategic plan is based on these tenets:
RThe Library Reflects and the Community Remembers
IThe Library Informs and the Community is Inspired
SThe Library Supports and the Community is Sustained
EThe Library Empowers and the Community is Engaged
36,402 Viewed
42 Outreach Events Reached 5,144 People 10,721 Reference Questions Answered ? WiFi Sessions
132,107
237,549 Website Visits Items Checked Out
253,715
40,220 Patrons Participated in Self-Directed Activities Physical & eContent use
950,534
REMEMBER & REFLECT
Reckoning
The ReflectSpace exhibit, Reckoning: Racism & Resistance in Glendale, explored our community’s racist history of antiBlackness and the resistance to that racism through historical documents presented in an interactive online portal. The exhibit grew to include a citywide public art installation interpreting the exhibit, sponsored by the City of Glendale Arts and Culture Commission, with funding from the City of Glendale Urban Art Fund, and expanded to include contributions from Glendale Unified High School students responding to the history
“The intent of my artwork was to reflect the emotional tax of people of color living in Glendale at a time when hate dominated over our city… to show that we still have so much work to do and the past will always be present.”
— Hoover High School Student Artist
Online Exhibition Visitors:
68 Pieces of Public Art
Dr. and Mrs. Alva Curtis Garrott, Sr. and their three children, Glendale, circa 1905
Colonial Swag Public Art Installation by April Bey
Tenants and neighbors, Sophia Lent, Hoover High School
“Speakers were honest and forthcoming about difficult and unsettling issues. I appreciated the transparency and leaning into the discomfort out of respect for the struggle rather than dancing around it, hinting at it, or shying away.”
—Be The Change Event Attendee
86% of attendees learned something new at The Color of Law author event
Be The Change
GLAC brought virtual events and exhibits focused on inclusion, diversity, equity & antiracism (IDEA) through the Be The Change series of author events. Be The Change events have built collective understanding of systemic racism, elevated the voices and stories of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and inspired communities to be the change. In addition, GLAC held an array of celebratory heritage month events, with virtual events, craft kits, activity booklets, booklists, and more ways to celebrate each community for all ages. Our sincere thanks go out to Outlook Newspapers and the Southern California Library Cooperative for their assistance in promoting this speaker series, and to our sponsor, the City of Glendale Arts and Culture Commission, with funding from the City of Glendale Urban Art Fund.
3,119 Be The Change Event Attendees
2,770 Heritage Month Event Attendees
INFORM & INSPIRE
Diverse Collections
GLAC expanded access to rich collections of diverse physical and electronic materials in multiple languages this year. GLAC added an improved interlibrary loan service, Link+, allowing patrons to easily checkout millions more items from over 70 public and academic libraries. GLAC negotiated with the daily Armenian-language newspaper, Aravot, to join the international, multilingual newspaper and magazine collection available on the library’s PressReader app. GLAC also worked with Vlume to become the first American public library to give cardholders free online access to the world’s largest collection of eBooks in Armenian. To promote the collection, GLAC conducted a virtual Armenian-language interview with the co-founder of Vlume.
418,682 Articles Read in 24 Languages
525 Armenian eBooks Checked Out
333 Interview Viewers
INFORM & INSPIRE
Art Happens Anywhere
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, GLAC and the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission (ACC) launched the Art Happens Anywhere (AHA) Program, with the purpose of encouraging the expansion of arts and culture activities and giving artists the opportunity to immediately begin working on a proposed project. In addition to AHA, the ACC produced the Adams Square Mini Park Gas Station Exhibits, the Beyond the Box – Utility Box Mural Program, and cultural heritage celebration art installations.
18 Utility Box Murals
LIGHTWAVE by AHA Grantees, Lightriders & 11:11 Creative Collective
17
Glendale Arts and Culture Commission Grants
Bioluminescence
Wonderment by
Jen Swain at the Adams Square Mini Park Gas Station
Beyond the Box
Murals by J. Gurantz (l) and Timothy Robert Smith (r)
SUPPORT & SUSTAIN
Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust
The Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust was created in 2020 through the merger of Friends of the Glendale Public Library and The Glendale Library Foundation. The Trust raises funds to empower our library to effect meaningful change in our community. glact.org
Brand Associates
Founded in 1969, the Brand Associates endeavors to make possible and support a rich array of cultural, arts, and educational programming at the iconic Brand Library & Art Center. The Associates aspire to present and support an array of inclusive, diverse and free events such as music, dance, visual arts, film, special events, and talks as well as various children’s programs.
AssociatesofBrand.org
“A library full of material about arts and music? It’s like a dream come true!”
— Brand Library Patron
Rangoli Dance Company at the 2021 Brand Associates Online Dance Series
Kids enjoying school supplies and books from GLAC
SUPPORT & SUSTAIN
COVID-19 Response
“Thanks for offering the option of getting bonus books when picking up items curbside. When I get home from the library, my kids tear apart the bag to see what the librarians have sent home for them. We’ve discovered books we probably wouldn’t have otherwise, and it feels like such a caring gesture from our librarians.”
— Library Patron
The pandemic forced every part of society to adapt, and Team GLAC has run with the opportunity to support the community – from providing contactless pickup and virtual programs, to sewing face masks and setting up Little Free Food Pantries. Connie DK Lane, an AHA grantee, exhibited 15,000 & MORE: A Plethora of Light & Darkness at the Central Library to honor the lives lost to COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. GLAC supported Los Angeles Public Library’s work to create PPE for healthcare workers by deploying MakerSpace 3D printers –eventually bringing that PPE back to Glendale.
“I have been borrowing ebooks and magazines since the pandemic outbreak. Some weeks, I read 3 books in 7 days. The books filled me up and helped me stay sane in this chaotic and uncertain time. I am very grateful.”
— Library Patron
LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger dedicates Lane’s 15,000 AND MORE: A Plethora of Light & Darkness exhibit
Virtual Hand Washing Experiment Program for Children
EMPOWER & ENGAGE
Supporting Youth
GLAC worked with Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) to expand the Student Library Card program, ensuring that every elementary school student has a library card and access to rich resources and support, online and in-person. GLAC outreach at GUSD to-go meal distribution sites gave students access to free books for home libraries, take-home activities, and supplies to help learn at home when school was remote. Finally, GLAC launched 10 different online reading challenges for children and youth this year, engaging children and families in reading and learning activities all year long.
Reading challenges engaged 1,340 children and families who read 5,900 books for 131,405 minutes!
“The summer reading program has been so incredible — from the weekly activities to the special zoom sessions and of course the many books the kids were encouraged to read! We have just loved the program!”
— Parent
12,965
A GUSD student with books and school supplies from GLAC
EMPOWER & ENGAGE
From Our Library Patrons:
“I love our libraries! I love the staff, the inventory, the media, the availability of computers, printers, scanners….”
“I really like the Glendale Central Library. I have always been able to find what I need, and the librarians are knowledgeable and helpful.”
“I find your staff goes above and beyond! Kind! Intelligence is much needed to heal our planet and I feel everyone here seems to give 100%.”
“They search and find whatever I need. They suggested I use the library’s online sources to learn how to use Outlook, and I passed my job test!”
Eliminating Fines
The American Library Association has recognized fines as “a form of social inequity” and called on all libraries to stop charging late fines for library materials, which disproportionately deter low-income residents and youth from accessing library resources. In 2019 and 2020, GLAC joined over 180 libraries nationwide in eliminating fines, first for children and then for adults.
96% of patrons said they received exceptional customer service from library staff
87% of patrons agreed that digital and/or physical library collections meet their needs 95% of patrons stated that the online event they attended met their expectations 80% of patrons use the library once a month or more often 87+ 13 95+ 5 80+ 20
GLAC Outreach at National Night Out
ADOPTED BUDGET
Fiscal Year 2021–2022
“I find 95% of what I am looking for, I come to take it with
— Library Patron
Conceptual Design of Children’s Space
COMING SOON
The year ahead is bringing exciting opportunities. Glendale Library, Arts & Culture is preparing to remodel the Children’s & Teen Spaces at the Central Library in partnership with Glendale Public Works & architects, Johnson Favaro LLP. Community feedback has been excited and thoughtful, and the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Trust has pledged to fundraise for the project. The Arts & Culture Commission is working towards funding several pieces of iconic public art to be placed throughout Glendale and continue to cement Glendale as an arts destination. In 2022, GLAC will acquire and launch a no-emissions outreach vehicle to help our efforts to bring library, arts and culture wherever our community gathers in Glendale.
by Johnson Favaro
Conceptual Design of Teen Space and SoundSpace by Johnson Favaro